Rio Hondo wraps up series win with 8-1 victory at East LA

MONTEREY PARK — Osmar Vargas threw six shutout innings in relief and Rio Hondo College scored five times in the top of the fourth inning on four East Los Angeles College errors, leading the Roadrunners to an 8-1 South Coast Conference win on Friday at ELAC.

The victory improved Rio Hondo to 9-25 overall and 5-13 in conference play after the Roadrunners won two from the three-game SCC series.

Vargas allowed six hits and three walks over his six scoreless frames, inducing 10 groundouts. He picked up his first win and improved to 1-0.

Sebastian Zamorano started on the mound and worked three innings, giving up a run in the second when Israel Espinoza singled to left to score Daniel Quiroz and put East Los Angeles ahead 1-0. 

Rio Hondo answered in the fourth, sending nine batters to the plate. Mario Morton singled, Andrew Ruvalcaba reached on an error, and Lucios Mika walked to load the bases. Consecutive bases-loaded walks to Joshua Oh and Nathan Sena forced in two runs. A Diego Helguera lineout scored a third on an Espinoza error, and a wild pitch from starter Angelo Martinez plated a fourth. Noah Lara then reached on a second Espinoza error, scoring Sena for the fifth run of the inning. All five runs were unearned as East Los Angeles committed three errors in the frame. 

Rio Hondo added two in the seventh on an RBI single by Morton and a sacrifice fly by Andrew Ruvalcaba. Jenkins tripled in the ninth and scored on a final error to account for the eighth run.

Morton went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a stolen base. Jenkins was 2-for-4 with a triple and scored twice. Ruvalcaba had an RBI and a single. Sena added a hit, a walk and an RBI.

Rio Hondo is back in action on Tuesday when the Roadrunners open another three-game conference series at home against Pasadena City College.